My Take on Sonic Forces
by hjue44
Summary: What if Sonic Forces had a fleshed-out story? What if the characters actually did something instead of talking and fighting off-screen? What if they had actual character displayed with personal goals and reasons for what they are doing (-pauses to stare at Infinite-)? I try my best to tell the story again and fix these points, see if you like it, reviews are much appreciated
1. On Vacation

A warm, sunny day between the palm trees with a cool drink and a hammock. That is the perfect day for Sonic the Hedgehog. He lay there taking a nap, snoring silently to the chirping sound of the birds around. He often visited Green Hill. In fact, he liked the place so much that after every time he went there and started to tell his friends about just how great it was, they sighed and at least two would mutter something along the lines of "Not again". He couldn't help it and would probably tell them again how relaxing it was when he sees them again. It's been a few days now and on his runs, Sonic would think that it was almost too peaceful. However, he would quickly calm himself down and think to himself that he should just enjoy the quiet time. Fighting a mad scientist with the fate of the world depending on him and his friends was something he shouldn't be missing. This time nothing would ruin his vacation. No giant lizards, no maniacs with post-mortem superlasers, no aliens, no magical beings, no nothing. Just him taking a break, even if only two days of it were left by now.

Suddenly, his commlink broke the silence and woke him up in a flash. The hammock swayed over due to the sudden movement and before he knew it, he landed face-down on the ground. He grabbed the small device and pressed the triangular shaped blue button on it, which then glowed while Tails voice came to his ears.

"Soni-" "Tails, why do you have to wake me up?! I'm on vacation!" "No time for that, Sonic. Eggman is invading the city!" Sonic jumped up and wrapped the comm around his wrist. Now he was wide awake and ready to go. "Don't worry, I'm on my way!" He blasted off into the hills and headed towards the city. "Sonic, be careful. This is not the usual Eggman-Invasion as we know it. He's brought an entire army!" "Can't be that bad," Sonic replied confidently before jumping over a relatively large rock, evading a palm tree with a sidestep and then sliding underneath a fallen one. Smiling to himself for the move, he heard Tails worried voice. "I mean it, these things are huge! They destroyed so much in so little time and appeared out of nowhere!" Sonic didn't answer. He had taken a huge leap over a gorge and immediately felt that something was off. Then, he saw it.

Why was there sand in the middle of Green Hill? HOW was there sand in Green Hill?! Where did it come from? He continued running and noticed a giant sandworm in the distance roaming through the once shining blue lake which was now a yellow scape of sand. The farther he got, the worse things seemed to be. Where once had been water was now sand, and it was everywhere. The palm trees and almost every other plant around were withered, by now he was running on sand instead of grass and pyramids had appeared on the horizon. Sonic had made his quips along the way to cheer Tails up, maybe himself, maybe just to keep his attitude, but inside he felt sick. This was his favorite place, no, it _had been_ his favorite place and to see it like this… he liked it for its colours, the mood he got from the sound of water rushing down ledges and cliffs while walking on the soft grass, all was now gone. But he pressed on, ignoring his own heartache to help Tails and safe the city.

* * *

So much for the first part, hope you liked it. I just thought it to be strange that Sonic is just there in the middle of a messed up Green Hill without being suspicious about it, so I added this short intro. I also want to put out a warning: I will steer far away from the plot in the game at some points and add my own ideas, plotlines and filler, because the game really tends to jump over important time periods and dismisses moments that should have tension as if they didn't exist. But I will also go hand in hand with the game when I can, so if you're worried about this being 99% selfmade and 1% Forces, don't be.

if you have ideas for this that you believe are very cool and should have been like this in the game, feel free to contact me, I'd be happy to hear about it. There's no way I have THE idea to fixing this game. So with the high chance that it will be better than what I have in my mind, I would put it in the story (of course with your consent). BUT see if those ideas are your own, I don't want to copy anyone or rephrase your favourite Fanfic since I am very late on the "Fixing Sonic Forces"-scene and there are probably countless out there who did what I am doing now.


	2. The Rescue

By the time he arrived at the first buildings of the city, he only saw the smoke in the distance. All the houses had their windows and doors shut, nobody was on the street. Still, he heard screams coming from somewhere but he couldn't make out the direction. Running along the main street, he finally reached town square. People were cornered by robots, among them stood Tails, who was shooting with some kind of laser at them, which made them collapse on hit but there were too many. Sonic speeded headfirst into the first one just when Tails lost his laser. A robot had flanked him and hit his arm. The fox cried out in agony, held his arm and retreated to the frightened people.

In the meantime, Sonic had taken out the last rows and jumped high up in the air and dashed onto the robot which was charging at the group. Standing now on top of it, he knocked it over and landed on his feet just in front of his friend, with the robot hitting the ground behind him.

"Sonic, am I glad to see you!" "Yeah, seems like I'm just in time. Let's clean up here and get these people to safety." The robots had reevaluated the situation and continued their approach. Sonic had a hard time taking them out, but with Tails calling out those which began to charge their blasters, he could stop them without anyone getting hurt. As son as the last one fell, Sonic turned to the group with a smile. "Everyone alright?" They nodded, but he noticed Tails arm which seemed to be bleeding. Sonic pointed them away from the smoke and told them to get inside and barricade everything, then he turned to his friend. "Tails, what's wrong?" "Nothing, just a scratch." Sonic, being very able to see the red on his arm even though Tails held his hand over it, didn't quite believe him, but before he could take a look at it, he heard the familiar growl of a hovercraft.

Indeed it was Eggman on his bowl-shaped pod, announcing himself with terrible laughter. "Eggman! You got nerve to show up here!" "Why hello there, Sonic! How glad I am to finally find you!" Sonic, being used to the doctor being overly confident with his victory dismissed this and continued. "Nice to know that you can't seem to wait for me kicking you out of this party. By the way, it's over anyway. Surrender now and I spare you the defeat!" This made the doctor laugh again, even louder than before. In return, this annoyed Sonic. "Always the hard way…" Was all he muttered before entering a fighting stance, preparing his final blow against the doctor.

Jumping up and getting ready to deliver the blow, something unexpected happened. Out of nowhere, Shadow appeared and knocked him back to the ground. "Shadow, it's you?!" Before he could ask any questions, Zavok landed with a loud stomp next to Shadow. Now, with both in front of him, Metal Sonic joined their ranks while Chaos also grouped with them. Sonic signalled Tails to seek cover with a wave of a hand. Being injured, Tails obliged, even though he hated the thought of abandoning his friend and took cover behind a bench.

Now they all stood between him and the doctor, who only had a diabolical grin on his face. Sonic was taken aback. How was Chaos back? He remembered the last time they had battled when an entire city was flooded and the damage done immeasurable. Metal had also given him a headache, being very powerful on his own. Shadow… why was Shadow there? This confused him the most. He had been working for GUN and hadn't done anything evil since he returned. Why would he betray him again? Why would he seek to destroy the life he had built over the past years? Sonic snapped out of it and focused. After all, Shadow had been a force to be reckoned with in the past. Even though Sonic now faced some of the most powerful enemies he had ever encountered, he couldn't stop himself from smiling inside when he saw Zavok among them. To Sonic, he couldn't quite step up to an actual threat like the others, he was more an inconvenience than a villain. But still, no quips escaped his mouth. He was aware that even Zavok could be very dangerous when all those foes would work together to fight him.

"Alright, who's first?" was all he asked, returning to his fighting stance. But the answer didn't come from any of them, instead, it came from above. It was a deep voice, somewhat robotic, unfamiliar to him and all it said was "You". Sonic looked up and immediately spotted a person slowly descending to the group. It wore a mask, black and white, and Sonic caught a stare he wouldn't forget anytime soon. A yellow eye seemed to stare right into his soul through the red screen of the mask, making him shake from the very uncomfortable feeling. The other eye was covered by the mask and the place where it should have been was just a couple of black circles painted on it. The boots and gloves where rather large and frayed at their ends, covering much of his black fur. The tail was also very long, just like the black and white hair. "A new guy, who's the rookie, Eggman?" Sonic, trying to hide his surprise from his enemies kept his attitude. But again, it was the stranger who replied. "Not your concern, creature. You should worry about your own position."

Without a warning, Chaos reached far out and tried to punch him, but Sonic evaded the attack. Metal then boosted towards him and again, Sonic escaped. In the corner of his eye, he saw Shadow disappear and turned around, just to see him right in front of him. "The good ol' teleport, classic." He said to his black counterpart before ducking down to dodge a melee attack from the hedgehog. Sonic then kicked his knee and made him fall, but before he hit the ground he teleported again and fell on top of Sonic. Being pinned down was something he had wanted to avoid at all cost, and while Shadow held him on the ground, Zavok approached. Right behind his head towered the red colossus, and he lifted his arm to deal a devastating blow. Sonic still struggled to escape, but Tails flew from his cover and threw himself against Shadow, rendering Sonic free, who rolled to the side. Right next to his head was now a small hole in the ground, but he had no time to feel relieved to have escaped his demise.

He jumped back on his feet and dodged another swing from Zavok, but then looked for Tails. When he saw him, the fox was crawling on one hand from Shadow, who seemed to be playing with his victim. He slowly walked after the injured fox and had a sick smile on his face. Sonic, disturbed by the scene, dashed towards him and knocked the surprised hedgehog into a wall. "Tails, get out of here!" was all he could say before Chaos tried to strike him from the distance again. Sonic sidestepped, ran towards Zavok, jumped over him and landed in front of Metal. They clashed together, dealt punches against each other but another attack from Chaos knocked Sonic out of the fistfight. Metal's frame was damaged, but Sonic had caught a clean hit to the stomach. The pain surged through his body, but he had no time to mind it. He caught his stance, took a deep breath and observed. He was surrounded. Shadow to his left, Chaos in front of him, Metal now to his left and Zavok most likely behind him.

Silence fell upon them. Sonic just stood there and thought of a plan. He stared at his enemies and for the first time, he noticed a strange aura around them, like a purple glimmer. He looked up to the stranger, who was still hovering mid-air, enveloped by the same aura as the others. Unbeknownst to Sonic, Tails had hid himself behind a chunk from a wall, which had fallen down earlier when a robot shot at a building nearby and watched the fight from a distance away. He sat there, still holding his bleeding arm and almost cried from how helpless he felt. His best friend was in grave danger and all he could do was sit and watch. He turned around and leaned against the stone. Just a few meters away he spotted his backpack, which he had lost when the robots arrived. He crawled towards it and grabbed his datapad. After a few settings, he glimpsed around the corner and saw Sonic being punched backward by Chaos and now surrounded by the villains. He pointed one side of the datapad towards the hovering entity above them and got some strange readings. _Powerful readings._ So strong like he had never seen before. Just before he turned back he noticed that this person was finally going down to the ground, landing slowly in front of the surrounded hedgehog.

"Now, give up creature, or be destroyed." Sonic, still shaken by the glare this thing gave him, stood strong and kept face. "Make me". "As. You. Wish." Before he knew it, he took a second punch to the stomach, a kick frontal against his knee making him cry out in pain and falling backward. This fall, however, was stopped by his opponent. Sonic was grabbed from behind, pushed forward so that he stumbled towards Chaos. The mysterious person seemed to move faster than even he could comprehend, but he figured that this was more due to his exhaustion. He turned left just in time to see a fist coming to his face but ducked underneath it. Next, he grabbed the leg of the guy and pulled it back, hoping that this would make him fall. But he just hovered a few steps forward and slowly came to a stop before turning around to face Sonic again. "You're a tough one, I got that." Sonic panted these words just to see his reaction. For a second, they just stared at each other. But there was no reaction at all, just the cold stare.

Suddenly, with incredible speed, the creature rushed towards him and landed a clean strike to his eye. Again, Sonic found himself falling backward, but this time his attacker slid underneath him and hit him so hard in the back that he flew upwards. When he fell down again, all he saw was the spin the guy was doing and the boot just next to his face. Then, all went dark.

* * *

And that's the second part. Feedback is very welcome, especially criticism, so I can improve the story. And again, if you have some good ideas for this feel free to pm me, but make sure it's your own idea and not taken from another story, don't want to copy anyone and get in trouble for that.


	3. Delay

I know that nobody is actively following this or that nobody will ask me about the release of the next chapter, but I'd still like to inform you that the next chapter is delayed for an unknown amount of time.

I had finished it ten minutes ago, saved it and went on to publish it, but my laptop crashed and deleted the file, so the entire thing is gone. And writing almost 2000 words takes a while when you're studying at a university with the exams being written in about two weeks. Especially when you're notes and the first draft of your home-written exam is also gone (I honestly don't know if there's a name for this in English and I am too lazy to look it up now, here in Germany it's called „Hausarbeit" – the more you know) and that was a heavy amount of work on its own and now I have to write the entire thing again in the next 7 days, so wish me luck with that.

If you made it through me complaining about how f'd I feel right now, I'd like to thank you for reading so far. The latest point of release will be end of February. Maybe I'll find the time and publish it until next week, don't know how that will work out.

See ya.


	4. Hope

Tails couldn't believe it, even after an entire week since he saw his best friend being defeated by the stranger. They had taken Sonic away and all he could do was watch. Even though he knew that Sonic would have wanted him to stay away, especially with his injuries, but the decision to leave him behind and flee the scene haunted him.

He pulled his tails close to keep himself warm, the sewers weren't exactly the most comfortable place to stay. He could hear the marching robots above him on the streets, he could see their shadows through the small light coming from the gully cover, but down in his corner, which was basically a small cove with a crack in it, he would at least be safe. The marching above him went quiet as the robots got further away, but now he could hear the steps coming closer to him. He looked up from his knees to see Amy coming back from her patrol.

"Hey, all clear. How you're holding up?" Tails simply shrugged, still being in a small depression-like state. "Come on, Tails, I need you to figure out a plan, we can't run and hide forever!" Again, Tails shrugged and stared at his knees again. Amy still gave him a weak smile and picked up their small bag, which lay just next to the fox. Opening a bottle of water, she offered it to Tails first, but he waved it off, so she took a sip and put it back in the bag.

Suddenly, they heard steps coming from the end of the tunnel, where a crossing was. Both sprung up and Tails quickly stuffed their bag into the crack. He was sad, but still aware that he needed to get himself together so that they wouldn't be captured. He also owed Amy a lot after what they went through since they had met on the street.

It was only a few hours after he and Sonic were separated and Tails, holding his bleeding arm, traversed the alleys and streets in hopes of finding someone he knew. There were far fewer robots on the street then, so he wasn't too worried about those yet. Then, he met Amy, who was guiding a small group of five people through the city. He joined them, relieved to be with someone he knew and together they headed towards the outskirts. But eventually, their group was cornered by robots and the people helped them escape, hoping that in the end the two of them would save them again.

Since then, Tails felt even more guilty, not only knowing to have failed Sonic but also these five people. Amy had told him not to worry too much about it since there was no use at all if they had also been locked up. They had decided to walk through the sewers since then to avoid the robots above, but even down here drones would patrol to capture anyone who would try to run. After they had almost been surprised by one, they would check the area before settling down for the night.

They heard voices between the echoing steps, so Tails figured that it must be a group. Just as they discussed if they should seek them out, they heard a very familiar voice among them. Amy pulled the bag out of the wall again and followed Tails, who had already gone ahead. After a short while, he bumped into Knuckles, who seemed to lead a group of his own.

"Tails, is that you?" The echidna stood in front of him, surprised to see him. "Yes, it's me, Amy's also with me" That moment, Amy stepped into sight and greeted Knuckles with a wave of her hand. "Good to see you guys, I thought you were captured. You should follow us now, this is not the safest place for a reunion." Tails looked past him and saw the group looking back at him with curiosity. "Where are you headed?" "We've got a refugee camp out in the valley, a rather large cave. When all went down we were able to move a lot of equipment in there to build up a makeshift base of operations. Right now I'm on a rescue run." He pointed to the people behind him. Tails immediately agreed, finally feeling some hope in his heart again.

* * *

That's all I can upload for now, so the chapter is short and misses the entire last half which was lost when my computer screwed with me and deleted some files. Don't know if it was a loss in quality though, so let me know if you find this chapter to be any good and leave a review. Until next time, have a nice day!


	5. Hopeless

"Ow, my head…" Sonic rose up and found himself sitting on the floor. His vision was blurry, but after a short while, he realized that he was in a small cell with bars blocking the way out. He stood up and walked to them, but as much as he tried, e couldn't look far and all that he saw was the black wall in front of his cell. "What is this place...?" Sonic turned back and noticed an opening in the back corner, but all it revealed was a "Cheap excuse of a restroom" as he put it in his own thoughts. The light came from a bulb hanging down from the ceiling, but before Sonic could focus on anything else he heard steps coming closer from the small hallway. He leaned against the wall opposing the bars and waited for whatever was on its way to arrive.

To his surprise, it was Zavok, holding a small bowl. "Here's some food, the Doctor thinks you would need it." He placed it down, pressed a button and two of the bars raised just high enough for the bowl to fit under them. Zavok pushed it in with his foot and released the button, only for the bars to immediately fall shut again. "Wow, thanks. For a second I thought you would come to mock me about this" "Hah! I wish I could, hedgehog! But sadly the Doctor wants you to witness his success, so for now, I'll leave you to your own mind. I'm sure it's bugging you that the city and your friends were destroyed because of your failure."

Sonic just stared at the point where Zavok had stood, who was now walking away laughing loudly about his efforts. Tears were forming in Sonic's eyes as he was beginning to realize what he was just told. He had failed. His friends, the destruction of the city, he could have stopped it. He immediately figured that he needs to get out of here to put an end to this mess, but whatever he did, nothing broke him out of the cell. After hours, he gave up and broke down on the floor, sobbing without any control. A voice in his head whispered that he did what he could and that he shouldn't blame himself, but it was far too silent compared to the other voice which screamed that he was a failure, that he was responsible and that he doomed everyone. Fear took him over, and images of the city burning and the motionless bodies of his friends flashed into his mind.

With one sentence, Sonic had been broken. With only one sentence, his world had fallen to pieces.

* * *

I know it's not much, but this is what I have for now and figured it's still better than nothing. But since I have my exams now out of the way and took my needed break from basically everything, I'll be posting more frequently from now on again.

Thanks for reading!


	6. The Shelter

They entered through a cavern into a grand cave. Tails was amazed by the sight of computers, servers, a food truck, the maps, the entire setup Knuckles and all the refugees had built.

"How did you manage to get all this stuff in here?!" He asked in disbelief.

Knuckles pointed the rest of the group towards a corner where some other people had gathered, leaving him, Tails and Amy behind. "Well, when the attack launched I figured that the situation was dire. We hadn't heard from Eggman for longer than usual, so he must have come up with a bigger plan this time around. So, fortunately, we were already setting this place up a week before all this happened." He signaled them to follow him and started a roundtour. "As you see, we set up most of our tech here in the main hall. There are two smaller caverns and another large one, where we've set up the beds and living areas. The smaller ones are for storage and tactics." Tails looked around and spotted two openings on the right and one bigger entrance on the left. They went up to the smaller ones, past the food truck where the people from earlier were now given a proper meal. Amy's stomach grumbled aloud by the sight and she apologized quickly for it.

Knuckles waved it off. "It's just a short question I wanted to ask you, then you can have a meal, don't worry." They went through the opening and found themselves in front of a high-tech table with several cables running up to a screen on the wall. Knuckles flipped a switch on the side of the table and a blue hologram of the city appeared with a blinking yellow dot on the city hall. Tails gave Knuckles a questioning look who had the map zoom in on the location. "One of the guys we just brought in told me a moment before we met you two that there are still some people in the city hall hiding from the robots. They barricaded themselves in and so far they haven't been discovered. Only problem: We don't know how many people are in there and how we get them out. Getting to the place won't be easy either. Tails, can you work on some tech that might be helpful?" Tails nodded and in his mind, the first ideas started to come up. "Amy, I'd like you to handle recruitment and training. We need more people that can put up a fight when it comes down to one." "Sure, but what is the plan here? I mean, rescuing people is a priority, but what do we do after that? We need to put a stop to Eggman to really help the people. We can't live here forever." Knuckles had put both his hands on the table to lean on it and was now looking straight down onto it. "I'm aware of that, but the people we have here are neither fighters, nor tacticians, nor leaders. For now, this cave is all we've got and until Eggman finds us here, we're safe. But I hear you, don't worry. Now let's get us something to eat!"

With that, Tails and Amy had their first warm meal in a week.

* * *

Sorry for taking that long on finally continuing this, but once I started writing again my friends and I decided that wanted to start playing DnD more actively, but since we don't really have that much money we can't buy the official stuff, so instead of writing this story I worked on a DnD campaign, which takes a lot. You write lore, the plot, collectibles, characters, design maps, create monsters and their stats and so on. Anyone who has played it before knows what I mean. But since the heavy work on that is done (at least for now), I can put some focus into this. As always, hope you like it!


	7. Chapter 6

Another week went by and Knuckles began to worry about the new threat he had been told about by Tails. Someone who took down Sonic with ease was someone that concerned him, but nobody he asked seemed to know anything. By their estimations, the people in the city hall would be running out of food soon and Tails was still working on new tech to support them. Amy's reports on how the trainees were doing weren't that good either. They would hold their own, but not win in the end.

Suddenly, Tails rushed through the small entrance to the tactics room and put a gun-like thing on the table. "I finally have it!" was all he said before running out the room again. Knuckles picked up the gadget and held it between two fingers like something he was not eager to touch in any way possible. Tails reappeared with a bunch of similar looking stuff and put them on the table as well. "Tails, what exactly am I looking at?" "These are my new wisp cannons! They are powered by the wisps, with their consent of course. They allow you to shoot fire, create lightning, create short-range singularities and much more! Although… we probably shouldn't give away those singularity cannons, they are pretty dangerous and so far I don't know where all the stuff they suck in goes to… oh, and… if you spot my shoe anywhere please tell me." Knuckles leaned over to look at Tails' feet, and indeed there was a shoe missing. He raised a brow but decided to ignore it. Tails continued "I reckon that these will help immensely when we encounter Eggman's robots. With a bit of practice, we should be able to rescue the people in the city hall without much trouble!" Knuckles nodded and inspected the wisp cannon with more confidence now. "How safe are they to use? I don't want anything to blow up in our own faces." He put down the cannon again. "They should be completely safe, but a little more testing wouldn't hurt."

Meanwhile, Amy was still busy training the civilians. They had made progress, but she still had no idea how effective some stealth skills and agility were in a combat situation. But what could a person possibly do against a robot anyway? "Okay guys that's all for today, you did great!" Everyone stopped exercising and started putting the beds back into place. "Amy, got a second?" Knuckles and Tails had entered what the cavern with the new weapons. "Hey, what's that stuff you got there?"

Sonic woke from loud stomps closing in on his cell. He was lying on the bare ground in the middle of it, his fur being dirty and ruffled up since he didn't care about his looks anymore. He only cared about his friends, but since he couldn't get out he had nothing else to do other than drowning in his own misery. For days he had only moved when absolutely necessary and spent his time mostly with crying until he would fall asleep. "Ohhh Sooonic, guess who!" Zavok was visiting him every now and then to rub the situation into Sonic's face a little more. However, Sonic wasn't even responding to it anymore and just waited for Zavok to leave him alone again. "How's your weekend been like? Something exciting happened? Oh wait, I forgot that you were trapped like the rat you are! Let me tell you about my weekend, though. I had a lot of fun capturing that little fox friend of yours. Too bad he struggled so much, had to make him stop." In a flash, Sonic was up and at the bars punching his fist in between them, only for a red energy field to pop up and hold him back. He winced and fell to his knees, staring down at his now torn glove, which was slowly soaking up his own blood. "HA, I see you haven't noticed this little extra to your cell yet! The faster you try to go through it, the more it hurts. Zavok reached slowly through the bars and put his finger on Sonic's forehead. With a quick push, he flipped Sonic over onto his back and then left, leaving him alone once more.

* * *

I couldn't think of a name for this chapter, so if you have any suggestions let me know so I can edit it


	8. First Mission (Part 1)

„Okay people. This is it. Your training and your gear, but also your instincts, will help you on this mission. We don't know if Eggman can monitor our comms, so we stay radio silent. The task is clear: Get to the main hall, rally the refugees and bring them back without getting caught. Last thing we need is a recon drone finding our HQ. Good luck."

Knuckles turned and went back into the small cavern where the tactical gear was in. Amy stepped in front of the group and mustered the five people that had volunteered. "Alright, you heard him. Tails here managed to place a small beacon that should not be detectable on each of our bags, so Knuckles can see where we are." One of the people raised a hand and Amy nodded towards him. "Why do we have communicators if we stay silent?" Tails stepped up to Amy. "Dave, right? These are for emergencies. If you get in trouble, you can contact one of us, but not headquarters. Besides, we don't know if Eggman even has the means to track us, so I'm gonna bring my tablet here to run some scans. Might be that we can use them after all. At least once I give the clear."

The group of seven people left the headquarters and made it's way back into the city through the sewers. In the meantime, Knuckles was watching a yellow dot moving below the holographic buildings towards the main hall.

"Woah, what's this?" Tails stopped dead in his tracks and held up his tablet. The group turned around and everyone looked at his illuminated face. "Sorry, I got some weird readings here, they're right ahead." Dave took a look around. "Shouldn't we take the right tunnel now?" "Dave is right, we need to go right now." Amy agreed. "I don't know, I think I should investigate this. It's somewhat familiar… oh! The scan is done! Let's see if Eggman is… nope! All clear. We can use the comms without worrying."

"Tails, please only one thing at a time. We can use our comms, that's good and all, but what about this reading you got there? We should focus on the mission." Tails thought about it. "What if we split up?" Amy shook her head. "No way. We need everyone to manage this." "Fine, then I'll go alone and on your way back we meet here again." Dave stepped between Amy and Tails before they could argue any more. "We're losing time here, what do we do now?" They remained silent for a second. "Okay, but be careful Tails. I don't want to lose you, too." She turned around and marched onward, forcing the others to rally behind her, leaving a confused Tails behind. He began to slowly walk now, past the tunnel the others had just taken and closer to whatever he was reading on his tablet.

After a few minutes, he was almost right below the reading and decided to take the closest ladder up to the street. When he reached the top, he slowly lifted the sewer cover and peeked out. To his relief, he was in a small alley and not on an open street. He climbed out and followed the reading. He reached a small courtyard with a tall fountain in the middle, looked around and when he was sure that the area was safe, looked back at his tablet. "This is so weird, almost as if this was…" he muttered to himself. Suddenly, a purple rift opened a few meters ahead, emitting a distorted sound. Tails looked up and saw the place in weird, almost negative colors. He jumped back and took cover behind one of the pillars surrounding the courtyard. Then, a purple wave spread from the rift, expanding rapidly, only to retract just as fast.

When his eyes adjusted back to normal after the display, Tails couldn't believe what he saw. It was Sonic, but the smaller one he had met when they had encountered their past selves. Before he snapped back and could come out to greet the rather confused looking Sonic, a beam of purple cubes hit the fountain. Tails peeked around the pillar to see Sonic lying on the ground with the stranger slowly floating down from the sky. The memory of what he had done to Sonic paralyzed Tails on his spot. "So the Doctor was right, the signature really was the ruby's effect. Too bad for you." Sonic stared at his opponent angrily and raised his fists as the figure continued to speak in a deep, calm voice, bare of any emotion. "So, you want a fight? The other you had to learn how fatal that mistake is." Sonic dashed towards him without warning and even though the stranger dodged him, Sonic could kick his leg and make him fall to the ground. Tails was slowly coming back to reality and finally processing the words he was hearing. Fatal? Ruby? He activated is scanner once more and tried to analyze the stranger again. While it was collecting data, he watched the fight continue. The stranger had just gotten up again and was just evading another dash from Sonic. The stranger continued in his emotionless voice. "I will make you regret this. I will pierce your limbs and make you suffer before I finally rip your heart out of your chest. And before death saves you from my wrath I'll make you see it spiked in front of you until the last drip of life has finally faded." Tails had tears in his eyes as he heard the words all the while Sonic was trying to attack this guy. He feared for what might have happened to the other Sonic.

"I'm done with my training now, time to end this." The stranger raised his hands and two leashes rocketed towards Sonic from them, wrapping around his legs. Now that Sonic couldn't move, he lowered one again a bit and clenched a fist before pushing it forward with force. What looked like punching thin air was, in fact, controlling the purple cubes, which moved similar to their controller. Tails couldn't see Sonic, but he tried to memorize the motions the stranger was doing. Tails decided to move around the pillar and froze at the sight. Sonic was still held in place, but not by leashes. Four spikes had indeed pierced his arms and legs, and all Sonic could do was cry in pain. Blood slowly oozed down the spikes and Tails just couldn't take it anymore. He dashed to the alley and climbed back into the sewers. He didn't think about being spotted. He just ran to the corner where Amy and the others should return from and sat down to cry as silently as he could now. The calm voice of so many terrible things the stranger had still echoed in his head.

Sonic watched the stranger floating closer towards him through his tears. The pain numbed him and blocked any thinking. "I told you what I would do. You know what is next. Any final words?" Unbeknownst to him, this Sonic was mute, but even if he was able to talk, he wouldn't. "No? Pathetic." With another motion with his fist, but this time pulled towards himself, another spike shot out of the ground, piercing Sonic's chest. "Now look at me, I want to see the light fade." Sonic only felt pain now as tears had almost completely blurred his vision. He felt very tired and his eyes began to fall shut. He only made out something red on a purple spike that came out of himself in front of him, before losing consciousness. "So fragile, so weak." With that, the stranger floated up from the courtyard, leaving the horrible scene to be discovered by hopeful refugees.

* * *

Okay, so much for this one. Had to check my story rating while writing for obvious reasons. Now if you're wondering, the part where it's closer to the actual game is coming up soon, but one of my greatest issues with the game was the abrupt start. It presents the plot and the main threat in the same ten minutes it resolves parts of them. Sonic "dying", Eggman taking over the world, needing a new hero (classic Sonic, the player character) were all things that were just skipped. The game throws an organized, functioning resistance at you that operates squads and missions, brings Sonic back and even adds classic Sonic and doesn't build up the villain at all.

Which brings me to the second point why I am stretching this. Infinite is all rage and "I am so evil and powerful" and does not much more than most villains did. Cool, he beat up Sonic... nice... I think Mephiles even killed him. Even Knuckles punched the emeralds out of him at one point. So if it's not somewhat obvious, I am modelling Infinite after Mephiles. The calm way of presenting horrible acts without displaying emotion and actually committing them is far more terrifying than yelling how you will have your revenge at some point, at least if you ask me.

And to all Classic Sonic fans, I am sorry for this. But I wanted to, as pointed out before, make Infinite a threat that actually poses a _threat._ Besides that, I think I don't want to handle two Sonics in one story, especially the way I am planning to write this. It will make sense at one point.

But enough of my ramblings, please give me feedback on this so I know if I'm overdoing stuff. Have an awesome day!


	9. An Apology

I have to apologize for not updating this. I had this idea, drafted it, planned where I want to go with the plot and so on but in the end, I burned out on it. To be honest, I don't see myself finishing this in the near future, if ever at all. I hate to leave stories unfinished and I will stop going for larger projects before they end up the same. However, I don't want to disappoint anyone, no matter how few people care, so I will upload my drafts. It's just gonna be notes so you can see how things would have unfolded and ended up being. I figured that this would be better than nothing. So look out for those, they're gonna be here soon-ish.

As for myself

I think I'm gonna lean away from fanfiction, at least for a while. Recently, I wrote a song and maybe I'll do poetry next. Some free writing, thoughts I want to put out there on life, philosophical aspects and just things I find to be interesting. Maybe I start writing my original story I planned years ago someday. But again, no larger projects for now.

Since this site is not really suited for the aforementioned, I will move over to Quotev. But if I write some fanfiction, I will also upload them here.

Thanks for the patience


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